Matthew wrote to show that Christ
was the
Messiah and fulfilled the Jewish prophecies.

Jesus
said to his disciples: “You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye ad
a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is
evil. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one as
well. If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand over your
cloak as well. Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go for two
miles. Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who
wants to borrow.

“You have heard that it
was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to
you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be
children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the
good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. For if you love
those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do
the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do
not the pagans do the same? So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is
perfect.”

This
week's Gospel passage reveals Jesus' understanding of what was a novel concept
and imperative for His hearers: to love your enemies. The examples that
Our Lord uses to illustrate this point are more complex than one might first
assume.

When
Our Lord says that we should offer our left cheek when we are struck on the
right cheek, He issues this imperative with a Jewish understanding in mind.
The only way a right-handed Jew could strike you on the right cheek was if he
used his backhand to hit you. Jewish rabbinical law states that to hit a
man with the back of the hand was reserved for slaves and was twice as insulting
as hitting a man with the flat of the hand. Here, Our Lord is warning us
against making retaliation for insults and to avoid the interior resentment
within ourselves that accompany insults.

When
Jesus orders us to give an adversary our cloak when he wants to go to law with
us over our tunic, He was aware that every Jew, no matter how poor, owned a
tunic, which was an inner garment. Jews also carried a cloak, which served
as a coat by day and a blanket by night. In Exodus 22:26-27, the Mosaic
law prohibited the taking of another man's cloak overnight, lest he freeze
during the night hours. In other words, a man's cloak could not be taken
from him permanently. Here, Our Lord tells His disciples that true
believers will not consider their rights as much as they will consider their
obligations and that they will think less of their privileges and more of their
responsibilities. In other words, a true disciple of Jesus Christ need not
always make recourse to his rights but will be willing to forego those rights if
charity demands it.

When
Our Lord says that if anyone should press you into service for one mile, go for
two miles, He may have had the Greek word aggareuein in mind. This
Greek word, which means "compel," is taken from the Persian version, which means
"courier." The Persian postal system was designed with a days-long journey
in mind. At the end of each stage, couriers could get provisions at a
postal station. If provisions were missing or lacking, any private person
could be compelled to provide them. Later, the word was understood to mean
"forced service" and is the same word used to describe how Simon of Cyrene was
compelled to help Jesus carry the cross up to Calvary. Here, Our Lord
instructs us to assist others with joy and graciousness - not to do the bare
minimum. We ought to use our liberty for service to others, not for mere
caprice. Our sense of humble deference to the needs of others will reveal
the impact that our friendship with Jesus has made in our lives.

The
aforementioned images have become practical clichés in common parlance.
Yet, they reveal to us the depths of what Christian love demands. They are
an introduction to the novel imperative that Jesus offers us: to love our
enemies. This sense of merciful love toward our neighbor exceeds the
strict justice of Judaism and opens up for us the complete picture of what
divine love really means.